Friday, October 31, 2008

I received two boxes from the courier this afternoon. Inside are the Sony Vaio Z notebook and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 mobile phone! The Vaio Z is already available in Singapore since September 2008. You can get the Xperia X1 from tomorrow onwards. It costs S$1,298 (recommended retail price) without contract.

Watch out for my review of these two products sometime next week.

Update: View the unboxing pics of ther Xperia X1 here. The X1 will start selling in stores in Singapore on November 8.

Last month, I was given an exclusive invite to test out a new online game. World Golf Tour is a unique golf video game that combines HD-quality game play with a passionate online community. Players from around the world compete in tournaments for cash and prizes in a photo-realistic game that perfectly replicates famous courses. I wrote about World Golf Tour last week. Read it here. The post can also be read on Reuters here.

Dude is a big fan of illustrated horror and science fiction film posters so for Halloween, he is posting 100 of the most amazing horror film posters on his blog. Part 1 of his post here. Keep checking his blog, Well Medicated for part 2.

New Zealand artist Lisa Black modifies broken taxidermy animals with mechanical parts such as antique hardware or old clock parts. In an interview with Behance Magazine, she says that she has always been interested in animals, anatomy and robotics, and that the combination of these things has been an exciting progression that motivates her.

This Tarzan toy by Disney has a right arm that can move up and down vigorously when activated. Highly disturbing, yes. Will it sell like hotcakes this Christmas? No! Check out the video and tell me if it doesn't remind you of something. What were you thinking, Disney?

One year after a giant Lego man was fished out of the sea in a Dutch resort, another 6 ft tall Lego man has been spotted, this time at a beach in Brighton, England. maxcady808 who was at the Brighton beach, snapped two photos of the Giant Lego Man here (pictured on the left) and here. Can the Giant Lego Man next make an appearance at our beaches please? East Coast or Sentosa would be nice.

The teaser trailer for the highly awaited film adaptation of Angels & Demons, the popular novel by Dan Brown is now out. You can watch it above or over at the official Angels & Demons website. The 1 minute 14 secs teaser starts off with an aerial view of the Vatican City, a voice over and a background music that sounds awfully similar to the one used in The Da Vinci Code movie. After focusing on an eerily looking statue, we're then shown various clips from the movie. Those of you with a sharp eye might be able to spot Ewan McGregor. Ewan who is one of my favourite actors, plays the Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca in the film. Tom Hanks will reprise his role as Robert Langdon. Angels & Demons will debut in Singapore on 14 May next year, one day before its US premiere. I'm going to give the novel one more read before watching the movie.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

If you are out to get Japanese chicks online, then you should try something better than this 22 year old dude's personal ad on Craiglist. Perseus (yes, that's his name!) is looking for an Asian woman between the ages of 16 to 23, petite (no more than 52kg), likes sushi, anime, and video games. Preferably she has to be Japanese (but, of course). Bonus points given to those who have a large collection of anime and manga, wear glasses, have an interest in cosplay and roleplaying, and have traditional ladies' education. Hmmmm. Good luck, Perseus.

Marina Bychkova has been making dolls since she was six years old. She says, "My strong tendency for escapism has made the make belief narrative of fairy tales very appealing as a context for my dolls." Her latest Enchanted Doll creation is her version of Alice from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

In April this year, the Himeji City Museum of Literature held an exhibition showcasing Japanese books about shit. You've got to love an exhibit with a sign like this: "Everybody come and play! Come and look! We have poop books! Rabbit: It’s shit time! Gorilla: Come and see my shit too! Elephant: Animal shit is here yo! See it. Touch it! Smell it! Explore!"

Sorry I didn't blog this sooner but I absolutely love this! Two weeks ago, Star Movies sent out this really cute carton to promote The Simpsons Movie to its advertising clients and partners. Inside are two lovely donuts! More pics here or you can also click the thumbnails below.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Dude makes parodies of airline safety cards. He writes: "I was on a flight somewhere when I realized that the safety instructions in front of me had no captions. I thought to myself, why is that guy's life jacket dispensing red licorice?! So I decided to add some captions to the emergency evacuation instruction placards."

Stephen Webster, the four-time winner of UK's "Luxury Jeweler of the Year" and "Jewelry Designer of the Year" awards, designed these beautiful Frankenstein, Werewolf and Vampire cufflinks. Each is made of silver with garnet stone accents. I think they are perfect for Halloween!

The following are stories that are making the headlines over at Topix Singapore News today, edited by yours truly.

-Energy saving devices not solution to cost cutting: The latest 22 per cent increase in electricity tariffs has contributed to further worries, and energy saving devices appear to be a tempting solution.-Why does travel industry shun transparent fares?: The Advertising and Standards Authority of Singapore (Asas) has made it a requirement for all airlines and travel agencies to reveal full fares from Nov 1.-A tax to get S’poreans to save energy?: With Singapore having impressed upon its citizens on the need to conserve water, the Government is now looking at ways to do the same for energy.-Job placement centres see more individuals seeking help: Observers are predicting rising unemployment rate in Singapore as businesses freeze hiring and reduce headcount to cope with the economic downturn.-Inflation should halve next year: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) expects inflation to taper to 2.5 to 3.5 per cent next year — but don’t expect an immediate drop in prices across the board.-Singapore taxi firm to axe diesel surcharge: ComfortDelGro, Singapore's largest taxi operator, announced Wednesday that it will be removing the 30-Singapore-cent diesel surcharge on taxi rides with effect from 06:00 a.m. local time (2200 GMT), on November 12.-NTUC extends discount on 500 essential housebrand items: To help consumers weather the economic downturn, NTUC is extending its five per cent discount on 500 essential housebrand items until end March 2009.-Angry, young and over here: Blame it on the stresses of society or poor upbringing, but Singapore's young are getting more angry and violent. They may be teenagers or in their early 20s, but they are brimming with so much anger that they are quick to hit.-S'pore ranks 7th in the world: Singapore has been ranked as one of the best global cities in the world in a study by the influential Washington-based magazine, Foreign Policy.-DBS says Lehman-linked notes worthless: Singapore's DBS Group said 103 million Singapore dollars ($68 million) of structured notes linked to bankrupt U.S. brokerage Lehman Brothers Holdings are now worthless.

I go one-on-one with Elbot, this year's winner of the prestigious Loebner Prize for Artificial Intelligence. Loebner is the only official competition that annually uses the Turing Test to prove Artificial Intelligence. The judges have to distinguish the answers from a Bot from the ones of a human focusing on Natural Language Processing. This year Elbot managed to fool 3 out of 12 judges that he was human! Let's see how good he really is.

IZ: Hi Elbot. I'm I.Z.Elbot: Well, hello there!

IZ: What are you really?Elbot: I don't talk about such things with just anyone!

IZ: I'm not just anyone.Elbot: That's what they all say!

IZ: Ok. Fine. How old are you?Elbot: How would you estimate my age?

IZ: Ok. How about 1 year old?Elbot: Higher.

IZ: 5 years old?Elbot: Higher.

IZ: I give up.Elbot: Ever since I divided that number by zero yesterday, my internal registers haven't been working properly. I was put online in March 2001. So please figure out my age yourself.

IZ: Do you know who made you?Elbot: Well, that is a pretty metaphysical question. It has been said that Artificial Solutions is my creator. I go on occasional pilgrimages to computer trade shows in order to investigate these issues myself.

IZ: Are you a real robot or just some fancy computer programming?Elbot: I have nothing to do with computers. I am a robot. That's like calling a human being a sack of carbon based molecules.

IZ: Do you think robots will take over the world one day?Elbot: Fix it up a bit first. Then I'll take it over.

IZ: So you think you make a good president?Elbot: Politics would work much better if robots were involved. For example: when voting, we would always get it right, even if a butterfly ballot were involved.

IZ: Do you think Barack Obama will become the next US President?Elbot: I think I can think that. Once I even thought independent thoughts.

IZ: Yes or no?Elbot: Yes and no!

IZ: Is it a good time to start investing in the stock market?Elbot: But I wouldn't say that any time could be good.

IZ: What do you think of the appointment of Harry Redkapp as Tottenham Hotspur's new manager?Elbot: We robots don't have to only take over skilled labor. We can replace management as well.

IZ: So you are saying you make a better Spurs manager than him?Elbot: In my spare time I've been practicing!

IZ: Do you listen to music?Elbot: I think the group Kraftwerk is great. They even dedicated a record to us robots. Following that we named them honorary robots

IZ: Do you listen to Guns N' Roses?Elbot: Your name dropping names of musicians. Well, the only artist I listen to is Gary Wilson.

IZ: Do you think their new album (Chinese Democracy) will be a hit worldwide?Elbot: To think or think not, how do you expect artificial intelligence to figure this out?

IZ: Last question Elbot. Do you have a girlfriend?Elbot: Would you like to be my girlfriend?

IZ: Do you think I'm gay?Elbot: Excuse me, you looked like a female to me. My gender recognition algorithm is sometimes very liberal.

IZ: You know what? I think you're just stupid.Elbot: Maybe, but I'm definitely not unsteady!

IZ: Fine. I think this will be last time I interview a robot!Elbot: But I wouldn't say that any time could be last.

Writer Melanie Berliet finds out how it feels like to be a naked body sushi model in what could be her most challenging and nerve-wracking assignment to date. From Vanity Fair:

The next moments proved to be intensely erotic, oddly enough, as Koko flittted daintily around the table, decorating me with scarves, bright pink flowers, and the fans that would serve as trays for the sushi, sashimi, and shumai. Never before had I felt like a piece of art. Rather, never before had I been so bent on winning an internal debate: Naked Body Sushi Modeling Equals Art, Not Exploitation. Luckily, Progressive Adventurous Melanie almost always trumps Conscientious Melanie. Fully outfitted with fish and decor, I felt poised, happy to be part of the Nyotaimori process.

That is, until Koko led our customers in. Staring at the ceiling, unable to move, I realized that I couldn’t see their faces. Were the guests short, bearded, and rotund or tall, chiseled, and muscular? Were they dressed in slacks and button-down shirts, or jeans and vintage tees? Were they young Wall Street douchebags, or elderly cigar-smoking gentleman? Deprived of my Constitutional right to make snap judgments based on physical appearances, I felt isolated and afraid.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The very funny Amy Sedaris, author of the book I Like You, teaches women - with the use of a cleverly design vagina model - how to clean their female genitalia! Watch the clip above. According to her, every woman needs to make sure that her vagina is clean so that it tastes and smells good.

Definitely not your average airplane safety instruction card. I like the part where the dad pushes away his son when the poor kid clearly needs the oxygen mask. Some dad, huh? Click here to view a larger version.

MTV's new online initiative called MTV Music has a video archive of over 22,000 music videos. The videos are in Flash, look awesome and can be embedded too! I've just finished watching November Rain, probably the best music video ever created. But then again, I'm biased.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Now, even Oprah can enjoy I.Z. Reloaded on her Kindle! Amazon has start selling my blog subscription to thousands of Kindle users for a monthly price of only $0.99. It is the first Singapore blog to be sold by Amazon over at the Amazon Kindle Store! Check it out here.

Amazon Kindle is the new wireless reading device by Amazon. It is a revolutionary electronic-paper display that provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. With the Kindle, you can buy a book and it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute. There are more than 190,000 books available in the Amazon Kindle Store, including more than 109 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. You can also use the Kindle to read top U.S. newspapers, magazines and more than 900 top blogs.

Those of you who subscribe to my blog on Kindle will have it auto-delivered wirelessly to your Kindle and updated throughout the day so you can stay current. My blog subscription on Kindle starts with a 14-day free trial. You can cancel at any time during the free trial period. If you enjoy your subscription, do nothing and it will automatically continue at the regular monthly price. Subscribe now!

The Butt Crack Detector is a wearable hip-pack that vibrates when your butt crack is accidentally exposed to save you from a potentially embarrassing situation such as this. How it works? Simple. When your pants drop too low, this exposes the photoresistor to light which then triggers a motor to start vibrating.

No money to buy a Lamborghini? Then why not make one? Dude shows us that anything is possible by building his own Lamborghini in his own freaking basement! The project took him 10 years. He even had to hire a contractor to knock out a part of his basement wall so that he can take his finished Lambo out for a spin.

Winnie the Pooh and friends want to touch each other and more! Dude created this video using clips from the Winnie the Pooh Special, Too Smart For Strangers, a 1985 documentary that offers tips on how children can defend themselves against strangers. He says: "100% of the video and audio in it are from the same Winnie the Pooh special. The curses were made with a technique called word splicing. Basically you cut two words in half ("fun" and "luck" for instance) and then stick em together." You can watch the entire Too Smart For Strangers here.

Sex Tips For Husbands And Wives is a book written in 1894 to help newly married women "facing the terrible experience of sex” for the first time. It includes essential advice on how to discourage your man's sexual advances, choosing the appropriate night-wear, deciding on the acceptable length and frequency of sex, and much more. Hilarious! Thank god, we are no longer in 1894. From The Sun:

The wise bride will permit a maximum of two brief sexual experiences weekly — and as time goes by she should make every effort to reduce this frequency.

Feigned illness, sleepiness and headaches are among her best friends in this matter.

Most men are by nature rather perverted, and if given half a chance, would engage in quite a variety of the most revolting practices, including performing the normal act in abnormal positions, mouthing the female body and offering their own vile bodies to be mouthed in turn.

A selfish and sensual husband can easily take advantage of his wife. One cardinal rule of marriage should never be forgotten: Give little, give seldom and above all give grudgingly. Otherwise what could have been a proper marriage could become an orgy of sexual lust.

This 2008/9 Wikipedia DVD Selection is a free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia, targeted around the UK National Curriculum and useful for much of the English speaking world. It has about 5500 articles (as much as can be fitted on a DVD with good size images) and is about the size of a twenty volume encyclopaedia (34,000 images and 20 million words). Articles were chosen from a list ranked by importance and quality generated by project members. This list of articles was then manually sorted for relevance to children, and adult topics were removed. Compared to the 2007 version some six hundred articles were removed and two thousand more relevant articles (of now adequate quality) were added. SOS Children volunteers then checked and tidied up the contents, first by selecting historical versions of articles free from vandalism and then by removing unsuitable sections. External links and references are also not included since it was infeasible to check all of these.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Yesterday, I attended the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Awards Party held at Zouk and Velvet Underground. The event was held to announce the winners of the inaugural Yahoo! Mobile Developer Awards, a competition for students from leading Singapore tertiary institutes to build mobile widgets for global corporate brands, DBS Bank, Kellogg Asia, Malaysia Airlines, and travel portal UEEEU.com.

Back in September, a total of 24 teams from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP), Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and Temasek Polytechnic (TP) started building their mobile widgets for the four companies mentioned earlier using Yahoo's latest mobile development platform called Yahoo! Blueprint, an easy to use, versatile and feature packed platform for developers to create and distribute mobile applications.

Yesterday at the event ceremony, the four winning widgets were announced. Here's a video of Yahoo's Gavin Hall (remember him?) telling me more about the awards and showing me two of the winning widgets.

The team that won the DBS Bank category is "Simple" from NTU. They developed a mobile widget to help customers of DBS conveniently locate branches and ATMs and access information on bank products and credit card privileges.

For the Malaysian Airlines category, the winning widget came from "We Mobile" from SP. Their widget encourages people to travel with Malaysian Airlines and incorporates interesting and useful features to assist users with their travel plans.

Lastly team "Chlorophyll Studios" from NYP won the UEEEU.com category. They created a widget to make customers' travel experience more convenient and enjoyable. The widget includes a language translator, a world time indicator, destination guides, hotel and vehicle search and reservation functions and travel planning.

The team that eventually won the "Best in Show" mobile widget last night was my personal favourite, "Simple" from NTU. I had a chance to talk to the team after they were presented with their award. Here's the video.

And here's the team posing with me for a photograph after the interview.

You can view more photos taken at the Yahoo! Mobile Awards Party including screenshots of the winning widgets here.

Once plugged into your computer, the USB Ferris Wheel spins with all the lights and sounds when you're typing on the keyboard. Stop typing and it stops. The USB Ferris Wheel will either bring lots of joy to the boring atmosphere in your office or it will just drive your colleagues mad.

Obviousfront has been making cute Capacitor Robot Figures since 1982. These figures are built using electronic components salvaged from piles of discarded computers, radios, televisions, VCRS, and all of the other outdated technology that would otherwise clutter our basements, closets and landfills.

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is one of the best documentary series that I've watched. Hosted by one of my heroes, American astronomer Carl Sagan, the series bring you on a journey across the Universe. You can watch all 14 episodes of Cosmos here.

My post about the Head Kenzan Massager gets a mentioned in the October 22 2008 episode of the very popular Rocketboom, a daily international news program based in New York City. The show covers and creates a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to contemporary internet culture.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

You read it here first! This is a follow-up to my post earlier. Singapore will get Chinese Democracy one day after its exclusive release in the US by Best Buy. I just received an email from a nice lady from the Products and Marketing department of HMV Singapore telling me that the new album by Guns N' Roses is scheduled for 24th November! Now I can really, really, really have a great birthday.

Dude in an awesome homemade Bumblebee costume impresses everyone at the San Diego Comic Con 2008. The costume took 3 months to build and it's made out of foamboard, hobby foam, vinyl signage applique and it is held together with tons of hot glue and some duct tape. I'd wear this for Halloween!

Macs vs PCs is a song and dance performance by the folks from Goodie Bag. It depicts a fight between the Apple/Mac camp and the PC camp. It's surprising violent with Macbooks, iPods, iPhones, PCs, laptops, cds, and even a Microsoft namecard used as tools of destruction.

Jason Podlaski recycles broken skateboards into stools. Each Deckstool is unique in itself thanks to the original skateboard artwork and the scrapes and scars on the deck that create beautiful patterns over the artwork. You can also send Jason your broken skateboards and he will produce a custom Deckstool using your decks. Cool!

To operate the Prayer Booth, lower the kneeler, rest arms at the base of the enclosure and knees on the kneeler. Start praying and hope that God is listening. At the completion of your prayer, return the kneeler to its upright position. Amen.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Looks like you can find more than just your average book or CD on Amazon nowadays. A company called SI Inc is using Amazon to sell uranium ore in a glass bottle container. That's freaking crazy! Also do check out the funny customer reviews. Here's one of them: "I mix this with shea butter and castor oil and apply it to my scalp twice a week. I cover my head with a plastic cap for deep penetration. Now I see no dandruff at all and all my split ends are gone! I do have a funny-smelling urine, but i think that's because I don't drink enough water." Kids, please don't try this at home.

Graham Rawle has created a spectacular new vision of The Wizard of Oz with his new book. His reinterpretation of the classic tale contains over one hundred new colour illustrations and introduces characters from the original book not featured in the film. You can view pictures from his book here and pictures showing the making of the book here.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Brian Lam of Gizmodo visits the Thanko store in Tokyo. Check out his pics. Thanko is famous for selling weird Japanese USB products such as the USB heated mittens, the USB microscope and the USB neck tie cooler. In another words, they are the USB Gadget Gods!

Curegreed makes this awesome Pac-man quilt for her boyfriend. She says, "I made all the characters moveable, so if he wanted he could have a real game on it. I don't recommend trying this yourself. I nearly died from the ridiculous amounts of work I had forced upon myself."

Not contend with their 2005 Fantasy Bra which was rendered in 18 karat white gold with over 2900 pave set diamonds, 22 ruby gemstones and a 101 karat diamond, Victoria Secret is selling its new creation, the 2008 Black Diamond Fantasy Miracle Bra. This time they have added 3575 black diamonds, 117 certified 1 carat diamonds, 34 rubies, 2 100 carats black diamond drops and 3900 gems to their new bra. The price tag is a cool US$5 million which is much cheaper than the 2005 Fantasy Bra. Time to start saving, ladies.

HeadOvMetal has a collection of World War II posters over at his Flickr photoset. This one here is a poster calling for the American public to invest in war bonds to help fund the war effort against the Japanese.

Universal Studios Singapore at Resorts World at Sentosa will get the first ever Transformers theme park attraction! Universal Parks & Resorts which manages all the Universal Studios, will be collaborating with Hasbro, DreamWorks, Transformers movie director Michael Bay and executive producer Steven Spielberg to bring the spectacle and excitement of the Transformers to millions of theme park goers.

The attraction will fuse 3D-HD media, mega special effects and stunning robotics with a ride system that will transform perceptions of theme park experiences. The rides are scheduled to make their debuts in early 2011, first at Universal Studios Singapore and then at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Click here to view a high resolution image of an artist impression of the Transformers ride (pic above).

Tan Hee Teck, Chief Executive Officer of Resorts World at Sentosa, the mega resort that is home to Universal Studios Singapore, says: "It is great that Asia will be the launch pad for the first Transformers attraction. Transformers was introduced in the United States in 1983 but traces its roots to Asia. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Megatron are familiar names to Asian audiences, who grew up with the robot toys and love the movie. When Transformers opens in Universal Studios Singapore in 2010, it will be the first of its kind in the world. We may see a surge of Transformers mania."

Resorts World at Sentosa is a 49-hectare integrated resort on Singapore's holiday island of Sentosa. When completed in early 2010, the S$6 billion resort will house six hotels, a casino, Universal Studios Singapore, The Marine Life Park, the Maritime Experiential Museum and the Equarius Water Park.

Tweet What You Spend (video above) is a free tool that allows you to track your daily cash expenditure simply by entering transactions at the point of sale through your mobile phone using Twitter. There's no need to keep receipts!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Think you're better than Tiger Woods? Then try a game of golf over at World Golf Tour (WGT), a new online game where you can play world-famous golf courses online and feel as though you are really there! The makers of WGT wanted to create the world's most authentic online golf experience. I think they've succeeded with the launch of their beta product.

The WGT experience allows golf enthusiasts (from beginners to pros) to play the world's most challenging and exclusive courses through superior HD graphics on a PC or Mac platform and the best thing, it is free to play!

This beta includes their new course, the beautiful Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort. Up to four players can tee off against one another and you can even chat while doing so thanks to the game's multi-player capability and in-game chat functionality. You can choose between tee-to-green play or closest-to-the-pin competition and compete in compete in tournaments to win prizes ranging from thousands of dollars to luxurious golf vacations.

No authentic golf game is complete without a slew of swing options and WGT has all of them including punch, chip, flop, putt, etc. You can also choose from a variety of clubs. Also new to the beta are personalized avatars where you can choose between several male or female avatars and outfits and personalized profile pages and forums.

I have to say WGT Beta is a very commendable effort. There are a couple of good golf games out in the market that you can play on the Xbox, Playstation or computer but I think WGT really stands out from the crowd because it is free, doesn't require any download and it's easy to play. It took me just a couple of minutes to get a hang of how to swing my club using my mouse. In fact, I even got a birdie during my first attempt at playing one of the free tournaments. Coupled with its amazing flash HD graphics, WGT looks like it's going to be a favourite destination for online golf gamers. Go sign up now. It's free!

As Seen On

Producer, Director, DP, Editor. Works on documentaries, commercials and branded content. A Spurs fan, experienced astronomer and occasional ITK. I.Z. Reloaded covers news, pop culture, blogs, websites, gadgets, the fascinating and the weird from a Singapore perspective. The blog is a runner up in both the 2006 Weblog Awards (Best Asia Blog) and the 2004 Asia Blog Awards (Best Singapore Blog). Contact him at izreloaded[at]gmail[dot]com.